Week 10: Working Draft of the Proposal Dossier Content

Word count: 2853

Key Terms:

Learning Diversity:Diverse student learners include students from racially, ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse families and communities of lower socioeconomic status. ... A diverse learner is a learner who is open to all learning styles and has an open mindset to worldwide learning. https://www.quora.com/What-is-a-diverse-learner learning Styles: diversity in how people think- and therefore learn. an individual’s learning style refers to the preferential way in which the student absorbs, processes, comprehends and retains information. Individual learning styles depend on cognitive, emotional and environmental factors, as well as one’s prior experience. https://teach.com/what/teachers-know/learning-styles/ Creative Literacy:Creative Literacy is a method for design awareness in education, composed of a set of tools aimed at contributing to the development of creative thinking. https://www.google.com/ Student Engagement:Student engagement refers to the degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism, and passion that students show when they are learning or being taught, which extends to the level of motivation they have to learn and progress in their education.

Introduction:

Education isn’t educating NZ kids. Students are disengaged, stressed, angry, and many are even willing to ‘cheat the system’ by credit counting rather than taking the time to actually learn. NCEA is flawed, it’s about damn time someone did something about it.

I started this project wanting to combine my interests with the physical arts/ crafts, and my interest of UX and Service Design. That began as a research project into creativity with youth, however the more I looked, the more I found, that suggested a much more pressing issue was at hand. 

On paper, students aren’t as ‘creative’ as they used to be, but that’s not entirely true. Children are inherently creative, with curious and experimental natures, it’s instinctual. The ‘lack of creativity’ that is being seen amongst current students is rather a lack of engagement. Students aren’t passionate about what they’re working on, they’re not inspired, and therefore aren’t reaching their potential. 

The problem isn’t a lack of creativity, or a lack of ability, but rather no purpose or drive to use it.

“High school is where creativity drops off.” -Nimue Strivens 

 Why is this? What is holding the future leaders of the world back? Research is pointing to the conclusion that it’s the entire system. Which unfortunately means it won’t be an easy- or simple- fix. For this research project I’ve explored what the (cumulative) issues are affecting student engagement, what caused them, and which are the most pivotal areas of change that could be targeted with design in order to create a more positive study culture amongst NZ high schools.
 We’re stuck in a repetitive system. One that ignores it’s people in order to follow the ‘rules’ and tick boxes.

“What makes a child gifted and talented may not always be good grades in school, but a different way of looking at the world and learning.”- Chuck Grassley.
 “Education is the most powerful weapon with which you can use to change the world.”-Nelson Mandela

So what exactly are these ‘cumulative issues’ I’m talking about? I’ve summarised key findings into what I believe are the core faults of the current NZ education system: 

Societal and ministry attitudes towards ‘higher education’. 

Why do kids go to school? To learn right? To learn life skills, career skills, general knowledge that will prepare them to be informed, capable, and confident contributing members to society. Yet the majority of what students are taught is for the purpose of preparing them for university. I acknowledge that for many- this is the end goal, and the school system is built for these students. However there is very little in public schools for students who want to go into trades, or even right into the workforce. There needs to be
a balance.

Societal attitudes to how we see different talents/ skills/ aptitudes. 

NCEA misses a lot of the ‘soft skills’. There’s not a lot of emphasis or importance placed on creative thinking, leadership, communication or confidence. But it’s not just NCEA, many people don’t place value on on skills they believe too ‘common’. But often it’s these skills which become the glue of society, and in order for them to become as important in the curriculum as STEM, they need to be valued by society as a whole.

 Student attitudes towards school. To be frank, most kids don’t give a f*ck about school. Blame it on hormones, blame it on the system, blame it on parenting, blame it on the kids themselves… blaming isn’t going to change anything, and in order to improve student engagement, someone needs to find a way to get kids to give a f*ck, because deep down, many do. Kids do care about themselves, they do care about their futures, but somehow all that’s gotten lost in translation along the line and we’ve ended up with a disgruntled student culture.
 Education -> workforce navigation. A key point that kept coming up in research, was confusion, parents, teachers, and students have all said that at some point there was a blurred line between what they learn/ teach/ were taught and the real world application. There seems to be little apparent connection between what’s taught in class and what’s required in the workforce.
 How classes are divided/ taught (learning styles). 
There’s diversity in how people think- and therefore learn. NCEA is quite a ‘one size fits all’ style curriculum, and so for many students, it just doesn’t work. We need to distill the teaching objectives/ criteria that is theoretically being met by each subject, and find a way to weave these into different classes/ learning scenarios. For example; for students who learn physically- how could literacy be taught in an active environment? Or, for students who learn visually- how could science be taught artistically? The conventional education environment needs to be challenged, and changed.
 Subject prejudice (STEM). 
Propose idea of making credits achievable through different avenues, IE, you have to get x literacy, x numeracy, x arts, x life skills (could be problem solving, could be ) x physical health, x specified... this could be a more advanced version of any subject, to encourage excelling in a field of your choice. Testing methods + purpose. 
Students and teachers are stressed by the overload of assessment, both internal and external. Teachers are saying they don’t have enough time to actually teach, because they’re drowning in paperwork. This is a clear issue with an apparently simple fix. Stop so much testing? Why are we teaching to test, we should be testing to teach? Have tests at the start of the year, with clear apparent learning goals, then repeat those tests (with different content) at the end of the year, while allowing teachers to test throughout the year as they see fit. (Provide recommended internal testing frequency periods.) This will allow teachers to adapt the class structures to fit their own individual teaching styles, and better adjust for the learning diversity of their own students. No student is the same, no class will be the same. We need to give teachers time to teach, that’s what they’re here to do.
 Legislative change of curriculum. 
Currently students are ‘beating the system’ by choosing easier subjects to get the required credits to pass. Avoiding classes that are considered hard, even though they may be more useful to the students future career path. Instead of making the ‘hard’ classes easier, why aren’t we considering making the ‘easy’ classes harder in order to fix this imbalance? Multiple teachers who’ve taught overseas through curriculums like Cambridge are saying that NZ students are “2 years behind” because less content is being taught here and at a lower level. We want to be raising the next generation to be leaders amongst their global peers. But by allowing them an easier path now, we’re actually setting them up for failure in the long run.
 Recognition and support for teachers. 
Teachers are the drivers of classroom atmosphere. When you talk to anyone about their education, and why they love(ed) or hate(ed) a certain subject, most of the time teacher’s name will come up- for better or worse. And yet many within this profession feel undervalued, unrespected, overworked, underpaid, and overall unhappy. So how can we expect teachers to be building positive and inclusive classroom atmosphere’s when they’re feeling like this? It’s our responsibility as a country to show our respect and support for this profession.
 

Background:

So how did this flawed education system come about? 
NCEA is built around an age old educational structure that epitomises Universities as success. Further education is the goal, that’s what high school students are being taught for. But is that even relevant anymore? Curriculums are being designed for ‘University Entrance’ but what about those who want to jump straight into the workforce? What skills are they being taught? And content aside, are the methods they’re being taught by even effective? (Given that these methods are styled to prepare for ‘higher education’.) Before the passing of the Education Act in 1877, all NZ education was privatised, meaning the majority of the population was considered uneducated. In the mid 1800’s, 25% couldn’t read or write, with another 14% only being able to read. Most of these were lower class, keeping the poor poor, and helping the rich get richer. Today, everyone in NZ is educated to secondary level or above. So what will education look like in the next hundred years? The world is changing, and schools need to change with it. The type of resources teachers use changes substantially between age groups. Once kids reach high school, the standards go up, NCEA comes in, and all of a sudden the paint gets pushed aside and textbooks get piled up. Of course, from a career perspective this is the time to knuckle down and get serious with learning right? But is ‘knuckling down, and getting serious’ the most effective way to learn? “We design for the future, we don’t design for the then or now.” - Karl Kane.
 

Precedents:

So what do I want to do- where do I want to sit? I want to be public, easily accessible and easily affordable, potentially working in with the govt/ Ministry of Education,  a scalable product/ service that grows with it’s users.What is already out there to create better education options for our country’s youth? Cost: private/ public/ scale Precedents for alternate education structures/ curriculums:Venture Up: S- Quick time frame, cost. W- limited availability, restricted locations. O- scalable, huge growth potential.Young Enterprise: S- well established, ‘local’, cost (charity). W- restricted locations, costMontessori Schools: S- scale, reputation. W- cost, O- working example, validation that alternate systems do work, and work well.  Precedents for alternate teachingg/ learning resources:Subscription based learning packs: S- convenience, individualised. W- cost. O- Scale out to work in with schools.Game of Awesome: S- availability, W- targeted design, limited content. O- scalable model, could use a similar technique for another subject.  The current situation:
What do current teacher resources look like? Show pics of NZQA website. Copy observations from blog.
 There’s plenty of resources already out there, education is a hot pool of change, but is the stream heading in the right direction? Are there enough people willing to swim upstream, to go against the current and challenge traditional conventions?

Process:

My research journey has been a bit of a messy one…. Add pic of scrambled line going back on itself.Primary research techniquesNetworking- going to speaker panels and networking events

Surveys

Interviews

I’ve researched education from a creative perspective. I’ve conducted a number of surveys with a range of participants; teachers, parents, current students, and recent high school graduates. The responses both validated some of my previous assumptions about the NZ education system, and also raised ideas that I hadn’t yet considered. There was a clear underlying tone of dissent and frustration across all survey responses, with 87.7% of respondents having a mixed or negative tone about NCEA overall. New Zealand wants change, students need change.

I’ve put myself out there at a lot of networking and speaker events around wellington this semester in the hopes of getting a fresh perspective on my project through the context of other’s works. Some of the events I’ve been to: The Speaker Series: Our City wellington.GovTech Launch Party at CHQ.MK Haley Experience design talkBanter and Brews meet ups nightUX Wellington event...Choice to pay Product Launch (UX testing)
  Secondary research techniquesInterviews- multiple opinion pieces onlineGovernment surveys- NCEA reviewPrecedents research- other education systemsSimilar issues from other fieldsHistory- philosophical speakers to gain a contextual understanding of the areaResearch from a design contextGrey literature: Non peer reviewed ‘not academic’ literature. Interesting insights in the social siences, humanities,
 Turning research observations into usable findings. Mapping actionable information: 

Proposition:

In lieu of upturning the entire education system, (which for the purpose of this assignment is neither realistically achievable, or within my abilities) I will solve a small piece of the larger problem:  How might we use Visual Communication Design to improve the lack of student engagement in NZ classrooms by empowering, inspiring, and enabling teachers?
 Communication Design can be used to improve student engagement by creating teacher resources that encourage a diverse and creative learning environment. (Secondary level) I went to a seminar by MK Haley, Professor of UCLA, and representative of Disney (experience design.) ‘Innovation in the Experience Economy.” She talked about how creating experiences can be an important part of any sales, business, or marketing strategy. I’ve been inspired by her guidelines; guides (POV), gossip (stories), and games (interactivity) which respectively becomes; ‘make me aware, make me care, call to action’. These three key points are what’s needed to build a great experience, the’ll form the strucutre I’ll use for this project.  These three key points are what’s needed to build a great experience, and are also the key values I want to use for this project.

Aim:

“Our world is changing so fast, we all feel it. To prepare today’s learners for tomorrow’s world, our systems need to evolve. Innovation in education requires the courage and creativity to take leaps at some of the most entrenched ‘truths’ we hold — the very premise of how our institutions are designed. The curriculum, spaces, tools, roles, infrastructure all offer an immense opportunity for design to make a difference.” - Sandy Speicher

If teachers are better supported, they’ll have more time and energy to spend on their students. Therefore students will have a better classroom environment, which will lead to better student engagement and more effective learning overall. I will use experience and information design alongside play theory to change the way teachers make their class content. I want to support teachers in creating a diverse and inclusive curriculum, making the process easier in order to save them time while doing so.  

The Plan:

My initial research suggests that using a collaborative, creative approach to a teacher ‘resource’ will be the most effective. In response I’ve researched play theory to inspire a ‘gamified’ design. Early prototypes have been focused on content rather than appearance as I believe purpose is equally as important as technique. I’ve begun to create a small manifesto to support my own designs (pitched to teachers) that embodies all of my current research about challenging the traditional and outdated education system. This has allowed me to ‘go big’ and explore as well as ‘going deep’ with the more specified teacher resource deliverable.

The different viewpoints of teachers and students will be key in the development of my ideas, empathy on both sides of the classroom would influence a more positive learning space for everyone.
 

I will develop these Ideas through a design- prototype- test- repeat- process over the 6 week break continuing into semester 2. These design outcomes will adapt and change as they’re informed by practice based research, but they will still achieve the same aim of improving student engagement through teacher support resources. 

Reflection: I wish I’d done more design based research from week 1, rather than realising last minute that I’ve been too caught up in the academics of this project. To rectify this, I plan to focus on design prototyping. 

Actionables: I need to participate in a ‘teacher only day’ or a ‘professional development day’ in order to understand the structure of these events and how I could better design a resource suited for them.

Contact/ network with teachers.

Contact NZQA get them on board, or get on board with them.

Find/ collect specific content for a ‘prototype’. Where am I going to get this information from?

Survey Massey lecturers about first years- interviews.

Get in contact with teacher referral from Ed Strafford. 

Test my ‘hunch’ talk to teachers, test with teachers, teach with teachers.

 Sit in on a class? Product testing with choice. What I’ve learned about UX testing and how to test an idea with potential users.